Parks & Holywell
by fredluvr09
Summary: (Next Gen. Slightly AU in technicality.) Rose Weasley, Al Potter, and Scorpius Malfoy have graduated from Hogwarts and are now attending the University of Oxford. Rose and Scorp have a history, but can they ever trust each other again? (M for more than a smattering of adult language)
1. Preface

It's October 2024, and the Potter-Weasley clans are moving Rose into her new lodgings at Worcester College in Oxford. Rather than helping, Al is making a mockumentary. Let's see what happens...

A/N: Just didn't want to start right in on the meat of the story just yet. Maybe tomorrow the (1,000+ word!) first chapter will be up. :)

Written with theseveremercy!


	2. Chapter One

*Move-In Day*

* * *

"No, Red, you can't _look_ at the camera or this whole thing falls apart!"

"Al's right. Fourth wall, Red," James chimed in.

"Respect it," added Hugo.

Rose Weasley glared at her brother and two cousins as they walked by, James and Hugo carrying an oversized couch and Al toting a video camera. "How many times to I have to tell you?! Don't-"

"Don't call me 'Red'," answered a familiar chorus. (Even Lily joined in.)

"That's right." Rose scowled into Al's camera. "You're not still recording, are you?"

Her cousin peered at her with one eye while his other remained intent on the viewfinder. "Don't talk the camera!" he repeated in a stage-whisper.

"I'm not talking to the camera, I'm talking to _you_," Rose informed him. She shook her hair out of her face and picked up a box from the sidewalk.

"Ah, that's it!" Al switched to his 'narrating' voice. "Uni move-in day, and here's the lovely Rose Elinor carting in box after box without even mussing those hideously red locks...and would you just look at how many boxes there are!"

"There'd be less if you'd give us a hand, arsehole," his brother shouted from the door.

"James! Language!" Hermione Weasley reprimanded. Rose's mum did not have much tolerance for swearing.

"I'm twenty-one years old, and I'll swear if I want to," James muttered rebelliously. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Not at your brother, you won't," Harry Potter warned him. "And not in front of your sister and Hugo."

James gulped. "Dad. Um, sorry. Didn't-it, uh, it won't happen again. Promise. Sorry."

"Harry!" Hermione greeted him warmly. "I guess you made it okay with Al's things? Where's Ginny?"

Harry glanced around for his wife and then shrugged. "She'll be along, I suppose. Was right behind me..."

"Well, Ron's inside setting up Rose's bookshelf-up the stairs and fourth door on the left...if you'd like to lend a hand." She winked. Rose's dad was much less strict about swearing than his wife, and he tended to make full use of his own extensive vocabulary when he was attempting to use muggle power tools.

As Harry chuckled and took the stairs two at a time, Ginny Apparated beside her daughter, Lily. "Sorry, all! Had to pop back home for something." She smiled and handed Al a DVD copy of The Godfather. "Your father and I almost forgot it was sitting on the telly," she explained.

Al nodded and motioned for her to place the DVD in an open box at his feet. "Filming, Mum."

Ginny suppressed an eye-roll. "Shouldn't you be helping move your cousin in?"

He moved the camera away from his face and made eye-contact with his mother. "Well I'm not sure I see why I should, since she's not exactly going to be helping me. It's only fair."

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny and Hermione together.

"Um, Scorpius is moving in too? Plus his parents will be there."

At this, Hermione cast a sideways glance toward the stairs-wondering whether or not it would be smart to put her husband in the same room with Scorpius Malfoy's father.

Ginny frowned. "Now why would that matter? I would think the two of them would be able to make a little bit more of an effort, particularly for their friends."

"Um, well, Mum," Al began. "You, um, well there's more to it than that, I guess. I wouldn't ask Rose to come along. It would just be awkward."

"You might not," said Hermione firmly, "but I will. There's no reason she shouldn't help her cousin move." She cast an eye towards Al's camera. "And the same goes for you. Camera down, box up. It's plenty _fair_," she added, noticing Al's annoyance.

* * *

_Buzz. Buzz. Buzz._

"Dad, can you grab that?"

"Grab _what_?" Draco Malfoy demanded, poking through the massive contents of a magically-enhanced box that sat on the floor in front of the fireplace. "What in the bloody hell is that?"

Scorpius stuck his head in from the hallway. "The phone you bought me last week, remember? It's probably Al wondering where we are."

"Well it's stopped now. Where did you put it?"

"I don't remember!"

The buzzing resumed, insistent.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and came into the room, an outstretched arm clutching his wand. "_Accio_ phone!"

The offending device flew out of the box and into his hand, narrowly missing Malfoy, Sr.

"Hello?"

The voice from the other end was hushed. "Scorp? Hey, it's me. Look-"

"Al, what's up? Sorry, we're running a bit late so..."

"Yeah, yeah, me too. That's the thing though. My aunt's making Rose come help."

"Help? Help you? Moving in? To our room? But she...I thought you guys had agreed-"

"You think Aunt Hermione cares what we agreed? She thinks the two of you are being immature and that Rose and I should be helping each other move and shit. So she's coming, if she doesn't want her mother's wrath brought down upon her lazy ass."

"Well just tell her you don't need help! It's _your_ stuff, I think you can manage without the extra help of an eighteen-year-old girl..." Scorpius trailed off then, trying not to think about her.

"Stop it!" Al knew exactly where his best friend's mind had gone. "I'll try, but you know if we make a big deal about it, they're all gonna want to know why."

"She hasn't told her parents either?" Scorpius asked hopefully.

"Nope. Her, you, me, Lils, and Hugo are the only ones who know. I think."

"I haven't told anyone. I can't believe she told them, though-"

"Well Hugo was _there, _remember? And Rose and Lily tell each other everything. Ha, anyway you did tell someone. You told _me_." Al's voice held a note of mischievous joy.

* * *

_(Flashback) The Leaky Cauldron, Sunday, 27 June 2024_

Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy sit in a surprisingly well-lit back corner of the wizarding pub, each sipping on firewhisky their mothers would snatch away without a second thought-although it was obtained legally.

Scorpius is starting to feel something of a buzz...he chooses to embrace it.

"You should have _seen_ her, Al! She was all over that _stupid_ Ravenclaw like she'd forgotten I fucking exist."

"I don't think she forgot, mate. I think you were why she did it." Scorpius looks at his friend, incredulous. "Wait, no, I didn't mean that way," Al backtracks. "I only meant...well, just that she _wasn't _thinking. Except that you two had a row and she was pretty drunk. _Awfully very exceedingly_ drunk. Aunt Hermione almost disowned her, the way Hugo tells it."

Scorpius appears to no longer be listening. "We were like, some great classic romance. You know, Romeo and Juliet. Capulets and Montagues..."

"You know that ended in death and destruction, right?"

"Ex-_act_-ly! We were always doomed. Like Marius and Eponine. Paris and Helen. Pip and whats-her-face..."

"Stop, stop, stop. None of those examples even make sense. Marius never loved Eponine the way she loved him, Paris basically kidnapped and raped Helen, and I have no idea who 'Pip' is, but I'm sure you're drastically misremembering his failed love story, too." Al downs the last of his firewhisky and slams the glass down on the creaky table. "Good god, man, you've got to snap out of it!"

"I can't. I can't just forget her. I can't just forget how she was such a-"

Al stops him. "Don't even say it. I can't very well let you call my cousin that, and besides-you'll regret it when you're sober."

"I'm not drunk."

While acknowledging the truth of the statement, Al is not optimistic. "May as well be."

Scorpius scoffs and finishes off his glass. "Not yet I'm not." He stands and makes his way to the bar, where he exchanges a few words and a few coins with Tom the innkeeper before returning, drink in hand.

"Where were we?"

"You were getting pissed," Al mutters.

"Oh right, of course. On with it, then," Scorpius declares. "To Rose Weasley! I'd like to just quote Kanye West, who famously asked the famous question in that one song: 'How could you be so heartless?'" He clinks his glass with Al's empty one on the table. "Anyway, I need to brush up. Focus on academics. Get ready for uni. I'm better off without distractions."

"Bullshit," Al replies. "So nothing's changing, then?"

"What's _that_ s'posed to mean?"

"You didn't exactly neglect your studies in favor of Rose this last year, you know."

"Of course I-what?" Scorpius takes a big gulp of firewhisky. "No, no, I didn't...I mean I did. I _did_ neglect...what?"

"Rose, arsehole. You neglected _Rose_." Al shakes his head. "Why do you think she was trying so hard to make you jealous? She told me so herself, you know. I mean, before the fact. She was pissed you kept blowing her off to 'study for NEWTS' all by your lonesome in the library. It's like you were cheating on her _with books_. Good god, man."

"...Books?"

Al continues. "Yes books. She told me she thought you were getting tired of her or something. And, well, she wasn't pulling that out of her arse. You seemed to find time for everybody except her. - Merlin, I'm loquacious when I drink. - She was _trying to make you pay attention to her_. And apparently she didn't much care what sort of attention. But still. You can imagine her surprise when you up and dumped her for trying to make you jealous. Well, maybe you can't. I can. A bit. I mean, she was out of line, sure, but..."

It's clear to Al that Scorpius isn't quite paying attention to their awkward, one-sided conversation.

_Snap! Snapsnap! _Al snaps his fingers in the blonde's face, bringing Scorpius halfway out of his stupor.

"_Did_ you dump her then? Because if you did, we can just move on, and she'll realize what a huge mistake she made by cheating on you, and she'll beg you to take her back and you can deal with that then. But _now_ you have to forget her and move the hell on."

"Mmmgnnnntexxfur," Scorpius mumbles into his glass. "I was gonna surprise her..."

"You're what now?"

"_Oxford_." Scorpius is suddenly lucid, and angry. "I've been speaking with a tutor in the classics program at New and he says I'm the perfect fit for them and they've got a champion rowing team and let's be honest Oxford is better in classics than Cambridge anyway I don't know what I was thinking but that's really all in the past now because I told them yes last week and I can hardly back out now because Cambridge isn't accepting anymore until next term and so now I'm stuck and how the hell am I going to live in the same town with her and also fucking _move on_?!"

Al appears rather floored by this exclamation, but he grins widely to make up for it.

"So...roomies?"


End file.
